To Worthing Museum
on Saturday for
Depictions
of Fashionable Georgian Women in Contemporary Film
The talk
was delivered by Suzanne Rowland in her usual engaging manner.
SR has
the knack of relaying facts and pointing out things that make you glad to know
what she has told you, but you never feel lectured at. The scene was set for an
exploration of whether costume authenticity mattered in film or not. The
period under discussion was 1714 to 1830. This includes (as any costume loving
fule kno) the Regency period. The contrast between Georgian gowns...the
elaborate wigs, huge embellished hats and big skirts and the Regency style of
diaphanous high waisted straight gowns and neat bonnets soon became
apparent. A Hogarth print from 1751 gave a contemporary look at what the
films don’t tend to show as much as the pretty clean people…the wretched rough
classes, all gin bottles and rags. But it wasn’t all lovely at the top either.
A Hogarth painting of c1743 reflects the bartering of well bred scion of a
noble house to a rich but a bit further down the social ladder girl. The
fathers are doing all the talking and the two young (and beautifully dressed)
progeny sit waiting while their fate was decided. Of course that sort of thing
would never happen nowadays, would it?
How you
were dressed said as much about you and mattered as much in Georgian times as
it does now. The popular Vauxhall pleasure gardens admitted any one who was
well dressed enough and allegedly any one who was suitably dressed might have
admission to the Kings Drawing Room.
Keira
Knightley playing on screen in The Duchess was the perfect illustration of what
was worn in Georgian full fig. Elaborate and abundant being a description of
her costume. We also learnt the significance of details in one of her outfits.
Her costume worn to hear politician Charles James Fox speak at a public meeting
had fox tails adorning her hat, and a fox muff for her hands. We heard how
meticulous the preparations were to recreate such sumptuousness for the film.
Authentic making techniques…no zips allowed for instance. Intricate items like
sleeve flounces had the stitches counted to ensure that any copies of gowns
matched the original 100%.
To assist
in making a ‘look’ authentic, recourse to the popular literature and beauty tips
of the period is still possible. Georgian women could read Ackerman’s
Repository, which came complete with fabric samples and this publication can
now be seen in digitised form. Makeup tips were available from books like the 1779 ‘Toilet Of Flora: Or A Collection Of The Most Simple And
Approved Methods Of Preparing Baths, Essences, Pomatums, Powders, Perfumes,
etc. You can buy this in facsimile form from a well known
online retailer. But beware the beauty products… toxic ingredients were not
unknown then. Let us not forget Georgian
Big Hair. Georgian wigs could be huge, padded with horsehair, thick with powder
to disguise the dirt and so tall that sedan chairs had high roofs and low seats
to accommodate them.
SR
recommended having a look at the 1940 film version of Pride and Prejudice to
get a real flavour of the Georgian women + costume+ contemporary film equation.
I did and realised that no wonder the clothes looked Victorian in this version.
Good old Hollywood had decided authentic period clothes ‘too plain’, so
redressed the story in costumes left over from Gone With The Wind, adding new
gowns for the principles in the same style where necessary.
It is
always a delight that so many thoughts and tangents and new snippets of
knowledge can come out of a talk. And I haven’t even mentioned the wonderful
examples of Georgian clothing that were laid out for us to see…more proof that
Worthing Museum has an enviable collection indeed.
Thanks to
SR for a most enjoyable morning.
